Generally, the present invention addresses the field of local communication technology, such as those short-range communications technologies involving electromagnetic/electrostatic-coupling technology. In one embodiment, electromagnetic and/or electrostatic coupling is implemented in the radio frequency (RF) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, using for example radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which primarily includes radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders also denoted as radio frequency (RFID) tags and radio frequency transponder readers also denoted for simplicity as radio frequency (RFID) readers. In another embodiment, visual codes are employed for local communications between a visual encoding means, which is adapted to display bar codes, two-dimensional visual codes and the like, and a counterpart visual scanning means, which is adapted to detect and scan displayed visual codes from such a visual encoding means. The visual codes code information transformed according to a suitable algorithm to visual structures scannable by the visual scanning means. Both introduced embodiments address identification information technology, to which references will be given in the following.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders are widely used for labeling objects, to establish person's identities and to recognize objects provided with radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders. Basically, radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders include an electronic circuit with data storage capacity and a radio frequency (RF) interface and high frequency (HF) interface, respectively, which couples an antenna to the electronic circuit. The radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders are typically accommodated in small containers. Depending on the requirements made on the deployment of the radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders (i.e. the data transmission rate, energy of the interrogation, transmission range etc.) different types are provided for data/information transmission on different radio frequencies within a range from several 10-100 kHz to some GHz (e.g. 134 kHz, 13.56 MHz, 860-928 MHz etc; only for illustration). Two main classes of radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders can be distinguished, i.e. passive radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders which are activated by radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder readers which generate an interrogation signal, for example a radio frequency (RF) signal at a certain frequency, and active radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders which comprise own power supplies such as batteries or accumulators for energizing.
Payment and ticket applications are considered as one of the most important emerging usage areas that will leverage in radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. For instance, a portable terminal such as a mobile phone implementing a radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder may be utilized to provide/present a digitally coded or electronic ticket, which has been obtained before, to a ticket checkpoint system of an entrance of a public transportation system. The digitally coded ticket is read out by a corresponding radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, with which the checkpoint system is equipped, and is analyzed thereby. In case of validity of the digitally coded ticket the access to the public transportation system is granted to the owner of the portable terminal. Advantageously, such a ticket checkpoint system may be available for public transportation systems in various cities, which may result in the requirement for coding different digitally coded tickets. Moreover the illustrated ticket checkpoint system may be extended to similar digitally coded records such as credit card information, loyalty card information, cinema tickets and the like, where the portable terminal performs information exchange with the very same equipment. The same applications may be realized by using visual codes presented by a visual encoding means and a visual scanning means allowing for reading-out the visual codes from the visual encoding means.
It is feasible to store said above illustrated data records in a data storage component, from which a required data record is retrieved on manual user input and provided for being presented via the identification means (i.e. the radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder and visual encoding means, respectively). Nevertheless, such manual handling operated by a user appears to the user as elaborate and clumsy, especially when considering that the number of data records may grow rapidly with the usage. Usability requires the implementation and realization of handling, which is understandable and acceptable by users. Each manual user interaction requires relative high effort and may not be feasible in various places and environments. On vendor side, the acceptance of users is often critical, since the implementation is cost intensive, especially when new technology such as identification technology based payment and/or access systems will have to be introduced. In principle, the better the usability the higher the acceptance of users such that the investment of capital into the new introduced technology amortizes within a satisfactory period of time.